Family Contact Worker

**This is a casual opportunity within our NSW OOHC unit, this position reports to the Senior Contact worker.
This position is situated within the NSW OOHC Unit which is responsible for services including foster, kinship and residential care.

The Contact Worker reports to the Senior Contact Worker and is a member of the foster and kinship care team. The position provides supervised contact to children and young people in out of home care with opportunities to maintain and develop relationships with their family in a safe, supportive environment under the supervision of trained staff. The Contact Worker is responsible for planning, supervising and reporting on contact visits.

**Key result areas and responsibilities**
- Ensure that the emotional, social, behavioural, developmental and educational needs of children and young people are met through the provision of trauma-informed care during contact visits;
- Review supervised contact documents and discuss issues and/or concerns with the Senior Contact Worker as required;
- Prepare age-appropriate activities which facilitate safe, enjoyable contact experiences for children, young people and their families
- Transport children and young people to and from contact;
- Communicate with children, parents and carers in a respectful, open and culturally sensitive way;
- Role model and reinforce pro-social behaviour by providing safety, stability, predictability and consistency through clear expectations, boundaries, responses and sanctions;
- Monitor contact between children and their family and record observations regarding physical and verbal interactions, strengths, challenges and known risk factors;
- Respond to issues that arise during contact using crisis prevention and de-escalation techniques, behaviour support plans, professional judgement and after hours/on call support;
- Ensure that children and young people’s wellbeing is actively safeguarded and concerns are reported immediately;
- Complete detailed contact reports at the conclusion of each contact visit using MacKillop’s contact report template;
- Remain informed of policy and practice developments in out of home care, trauma-informed care and related areas;
- Participate constructively in learning and development opportunities, supervision and performance appraisals;
- Be available to work flexible hours including evenings, weekends and public holidays;
- Be available to undertake higher duties and/or secondment as required;
- Undertake other duties as required.

**Key selection criteria**

The incumbent will have:

- A diploma in a child-related field
- A knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal culture and values and an awareness of the current issues faced by Aboriginal children, young people and their families
- Demonstrated experience in supervised contact, out of home care, children’s services, youth work or a related field;
- Demonstrated understanding of child and adolescent development, the impact of trauma, and the indicators of child abuse;
- Ability to manage challenging behaviour; and prevent and/or de-escalate crises;
- Demonstrated ability to build relationships with and engage vulnerable children, young people and their families, and carers;
- Strong interpersonal skills, written and verbal communication skills;
- Ability to work flexible hours including evening, weekends and public holidays;
- Ability to interpret and implement organisational policy;
- A strong commitment to the purpose and values of MacKillop Family Services, the Sanctuary model and the Sanctuary Commitments;
- Competence in Microsoft Office including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
- Able to work flexible working hours.

**Other information**

The incumbent is required to:

- Sign and actively abide by MacKillop’s Code of Conduct.
- Observe and actively support MacKillop’s P.8 People and Workplace Policy.
- Attend mandatory and other training as required.
- Actively participate in MacKillop’s Bid Management process as required.
- Participate in and promote continuous quality improvement processes.
- Promote an environment that is culturally safe and strengths focussed.
- Abide by principles and commitments of the Sanctuary Framework.